Tummy Tuck in Fort Collins Colorado
Tummy tuck
(Abdominoplasty)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Tummy tuck" is a cosmetic surgery procedure used to make the abdomen more firm.
The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines abdominoplasty as "Plastic surgery of the abdomen in which excess fatty tissue and skin are removed, usually for cosmetic purposes."
The surgery involves the removal of excess skin and fat from the middle and lower abdomen in order to tighten the muscle and fascia of the abdominal wall. This type of surgery is usually sought by women with loose tissues after pregnancy or individuals with sagging after major weight loss.
Procedures
Tummy tuck operations vary in scope and are frequently subdivided into categories. Depending on the extent of the surgery, a complete Tummy tuck can take 1 to 5 hours. A partial abdominoplasty (Mini-Tuck Tummy tuck) can be completed between 1 to 2 hours.
Complete Tummy tuck
A complete (or full) Tummy tuck involves:
• An incision is made from hip to hip just above the pubic area.
• Another incision is made to free the navel from the surrounding skin.
• The skin is detached from the abdominal wall to reveal the muscles and fascia to be tightened. The muscle fascia wall is tightened with sutures.
• The remaining skin and fat are tightened by removing the excess and closing the defect.
• The old belly button stalk is brought out through a new hole and sutured into place.
• Liposuction is often used to refine the transition zones of the abdominal sculpture.
• A dressing and sometime a compression garment are applied and any excess fluid from the site is drained.
Partial Tummy tuck
A partial (or mini) Tummy tuck involves:
• A smaller incision is made.
• The skin and fat of the lower abdomen are detached in a more limited fashion from the muscle fascia. The skin is stretched down and excess skin removed.
• Sometimes the belly button stalk is divided from the muscle below and the belly button slid down lower on the abdominal wall.
• Sometimes a portion of the abdominal muscle fascia wall is tightened.
• Liposuction is often used to contour the transition zone.
• The flap is stitched back into place.
Extended Tummy tuck
An extended Tummy tuck is a complete Tummy tuck with extensions into the thighs (front) and/or flanks (sides).
Combination Procedures
A Tummy tuck is a component of a lower body lift and can be combined with liposuction contouring, breast reduction, breast lift, or occasionally hysterectomy, depending on the reason for the hysterectomy.
Recovery
Depends on the problem to be treated, surgical technique(s), and other factors.
Can take one to four weeks and patients are advised to take at least a portion of this recovery time off from work.
Heavy activity especially is best avoided during this time.
Initially there may be bruising and discomfort.
A supportive abdominal binder or compression garment can minimize swelling / bruising, and support the repaired tissues.
Patients are advised to avoid all forms of nicotine for a month or longer prior to surgery and also during the recovery period
Costs
The cost of a "tummy tuck" varies from country to country and even within locales of countries. As with most cosmetic surgery operations, the cost depends on a variety of factors like the age of the patient, their weight and the state of their health. Depending on the individuals, there may also be other costs involved after the operation. This does not include the follow-up visits as required by some doctors.
On average in the United States, this procedure can cost from USD$4,000 to as much as $20,000.
The pre-operative and post-operative care, facility fees, anesthesia, and medications must be taken into consideration when reviewing surgery costs. No surgeries are a guaranteed success and therefore a second procedure or a touch-up may be required to achieve the desired appearance. These costs are typically not included in the original cost.
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Context Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) therapy has been used for patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma tumors, but the survival benefits of combined treatment are not known.
Objective To compare rates of survival of patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma tumors who received treatment with TACE combined with RFA therapy (TACE-RFA), TACE alone, and RFA alone.
Design, Setting, and Patients Randomized controlled trial conducted from January 2001 to May 2004 among 291 consecutive patients with hepatocellular carcinoma larger than 3 cm at a single center in China.
Intervention Patients were randomly assigned to treatment with combined TACE-RFA (n = 96), TACE alone (n = 95), or RFA alone (n = 100).
Main Outcome Measures The primary end point was survival and the secondary end point was objective response rate.
Results During a median 28.5 months of follow-up, median survival times were 24 months in the TACE group (3.4 courses), 22 months in the RFA group (3.6 courses), and 37 months in the TACE-RFA group (4.4 courses). Patients treated with TACE-RFA had better overall survival than those treated with TACE alone (hazard ratio [HR], 1.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.33-2.63; P < .001) or RFA (HR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.34-2.65; P < .001). In a preplanned substratification analysis, survival was also better in the TACE-RFA group than in the RFA group for patients with uninodular hepatocellular carcinoma (HR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.42-4.42; P = .001) and in the TACE-RFA group than the TACE group for patients with multinodular hepatocellular carcinoma (HR, 1.99; 95% CI, 1.31-3.00; P < .001). The rate of objective response sustained for at least 6 months was higher in the TACE-RFA group (54%) than with either TACE (35%; rate difference, 0.19; 95% CI, 0.06-0.33; P = .009) or RFA (36%; rate difference, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.05-0.32; P = .01) treatment alone.
Conclusion In this patient group, TACE-RFA was superior to TACE alone or RFA alone in improving survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma larger than 3 cm.
Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00479050
- Two thirds of people in the UK say they have no plans to put any money aside to fund their social care in older age.* Moreover, when faced with a choice of local authority support, paying for a private service or turning to family and friends, two thirds of people are likely to seek help from family or friends, according to major new research launched by three leading national charities.